Publication: Comparision between PV and CSP plants through LCA aproach
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2012-02
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2012-06-07
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Abstract
At present, the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission from electricity generation sector is a subject of great debate. In addition, climate change and water scarcity are important issues for today´s power sector. Therefore, there is a need to accelerate the development of advanced clean energy technologies in order to address the global challenges of energy safety, climate change and sustainable development.
Solar energy is the most interesting alternative in this aspect. Each day the solar radiation that hits the earth´s surface is over 4.000 times the global consumption in the world. We only need to collect, to storage and to know how to use it. There are two mainly technologies to use solar radiation: Photovoltaic (PV) and Concentration Solar Power (CSP). PV, is one of the most active, commercially and reliable technology with a potential growth all over the world. It consists in direct conversion of sunlight into electricity in PV cells. Today, PV provides 0.1% of the total global electricity generation. However, PV is expanding very rapidly due to the dramatic cost reduction PV is projected to provide 5% of global electricity consumption in 2030, rising 11% in 2050.
CSP is another possibility for using solar radiation. It is not direct conversion. CSP technology uses an intermediate heat transfer fluid (HTF) for transferring the energy contained in solar radiation to the power block in the steam turbine. There are two different options referring to CSP: Central Tower and Parabolic Trough. In this report, we focus in Central Tower.
All this renewable energy plants have an environmental footprint that has to be evaluated to quantify the real impact of renewable technologies on the environment. Nowadays, the most important tool to evaluate this impact of a product is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
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Energía solar, Centrales fotovoltaicas, Contaminación atmosférica